That one summer

Aurora

I snapped my head around looking for Orion.

I breathed a sigh of relief that I need not see him until next week and most importantly he actually did not catch me looking for him around in the office. After the texts on Friday night, I hardly slept that night thinking why is behaviour had suddenly changed and I was thankful he hadn't said anything during the weekend.

My head snapped up to see that Katie was indeed shooting a live broadcast. She was one of our interns in the social media team and shot a live broadcast every day talking about different tools of marketing and using digital media to the utmost advantage. I had always secretly rooted for her, even if she was a little clumsy, her work was pretty good and results were seen. But at that moment, I just wanted to scream and hide somewhere deep where nobody could find me.

I chose to reply back to Orion when I felt a little less embarrassed. But until then I had work to do and I was trying to wind up as much as possible before the holiday.

 Mrs Patel dropped by at the office in the afternoon to discuss her next marketing strategy. I have also helped her strategize on growing her business and still continue to do. It gets me excited about planning how a business can be grown. She also brings a lot of homemade food for us every time she drops by. If given a choice I would live off her Dal Makhani & Chicken Biriyani for my whole life.

By the time I came back home, I was drained and it was only Monday. Two more days to holiday. I prepared a lazy pasta dinner and video-called my parents. They are cuties, both decided to take an early retirement after they won a huge lottery two years ago. They tried to give it to my brother & me but we fought back hard asking them to keep the winning money to themselves. They have been traveling around the world since then, every month they go on a ten-day vacation. Although they have been very silent about the amount they have won. But all in all, I am happy for them!

"Hello, are you guys already up and about?

My parents beamed in the sunshine "A very good morning from Kyoto!"

My mum glowed brightly "Of course, who stays in bed when you are on a holiday in a beautiful city?"

"Ma, that is the whole point of the vacation, to wake up late and then roam around."

"Rory, you do you. But what will you do when they start calling us your siblings?" My dad was already laughing while saying this. It is true, they have always been more fit and athletic than I have.

"Then I will proudly say I am the youngest daughter of the family. That was true until you both decided to give a monstrous brother."

Dad immediately said, "He is the baby of the family, don't say like that."

"You do realize that he is only three years younger than me and that he is twenty-five years old. Also, most importantly he is a working independent human being." My not-so-young brother Atlas had already directed three action movies that were up on the charts and currently, he was shooting in Turkey for his next movie.

"Both of you are the babies of this family." My mum said smiling wide.

"Yeah yeah. You guys enjoy the day, I am off to bed. Good night!"

"Good night, Rory!"

After hanging up the call, I made myself a cup of Hibiscus tea and got onto my bed. During weekdays, I try to read at least five chapters before calling it a day. But, today all I found myself thinking of was how I could back to Orion after the act he pulled up today. .I could not come up with anything and decided to go to bed and my phone pinged just then.

I had not received any more texts from him, thankfully!

Thursday morning rolled in quickly and I dropped a text on our group chat.